Happy birthday, Estonia!

Last year Estonia started yearlong celebration of 100th birthday. For our small country it was very important milestone.

Although by blood I’m more Russian than Estonian, I was born here and raised as Estonian. And I am very grateful for that. I grew up speaking two languages and later thanks to American cartoons, I had three. I’m happy that I had privilege to grow up in a peaceful and beautiful country. Since my birth, Estonia has evolved tremendously and keeps on getting better. We are probably best known for Skype, model Carmen Kass and e-Government (and of course much, much more), but for knitters it’s Estonian lace. Patterns contain nupps, which are unique to our region and what made patterns extra special. They are also proof that fine lace is knitted by hand, no machine can still do it.

So it won’t come as a surprise that a lace knitter would make a very special shawl as a gift to Estonia. It took long months of planning and knitting, pattern had some special stitches and 6556 9-ply nupps! Even box for shawl had special design and of course was also hand made. Shawl is in Estonian National Museum.

Shawl EV100

I was asked if I will publish this pattern, but answer was no. This shawl was a gift and also not meant to be worn. It was my tribute to my homeland. But I didn’t forget knitters wishes, so this year I’m publishing simplified version for everyone to enjoy. Check out published pattern here: https://lacebycr.com/en/shop/pdf-pattern-eesti-100

Almost like night and day, but Eesti 100 still has all the elements from EV100 shawl